2018

The Environmental Performance Index 2018 ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories¹ covering A) Environmental Health (40%), which measures threats to human health, and B) Ecosystem Vitality (60%), which measures natural resources and ecosystem services. Over the years the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) has also identified a number of severe data gaps² that hamper sustainability goals.

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a joint project of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and The Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. The EPI is produced in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

The average Environmental Performance released every second year since 2006 is used as an ‘Indicator‘ in ClimatePositions, with an average country-score set at 100. Since the calculation methods at the source are subject to changes over time the country-scores are not scientifically comparable³ between historic EPIs. This in mind, the table below shows EPI-2016 and EPI-2018, ranked by the highest (unscientific) environmental upgrading in percent. Again, the upgrading or downgrading is not necessarily from increased or decreased performance.

Countries with ‘Climate Debt‘ are marked red in the table. Only 20% of top-60 countries are Climate Debt countries, compared to 60% of middle-60 countries, and around 72% of bottom-60 countries. Apparently, the performance of countries with Climate Debt are declining, relatively, compared to other countries.

Country details on Environmental Performance are available at the ‘Source‘. Historic rankings are available in the menu ‘Calculations (Excel)‘.

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*Note that Saint Lucia had full data in ClimatePositions only by January 2018.

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¹Air Quality, Water & Sanitation, Heavy Metals, Biodiversity & Habitat, Forests, Fisheries, Climate & Energy, Air Pollution, Water Resources and Agriculture. The 24 performance indicators are available ‘here‘.

²Severe data gaps: Sustainable agriculture and soil health, Water quality (sedimentation, organic and industrial pollutants), Invasive species, Genetic biodiversity, Wetlands and other freshwater ecosystems, and Municipal and toxic waste management.

³Differences in EPI scores across EPI iterations are largely due to additions and subtractions of indicators, new weighting schemes, and other aspects of the methodology – not necessarily from decreased or increased performance.

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Updated data and diagrams of all ‘Indicators’ and all countries in ClimatePositions are available in the menu ‘Calculations (Excel)’.

Source on Environmental Performance Index: Yale and Columbia University reports, published 2006-2018 (links in the menu Calculations / Sources & Links).

Print screen is from: ‘https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-indicator-report/EPI?&order=field_epi_score_new&sort=desc‘.